Eric Alexander

By GREGORY ZELLER // Before downtown redevelopment was cool, there was Vision Long Island. Today, it seems, everyone is doing it: “Transit-oriented development” is in, Albany doles out $10 million checks to stir the pot and some 40 Long Island downtown districts are in some revivalist phase – a “coalition of the willing,” according to Vision Long Island Director Eric Alexander, who remembers a time not long ago when things were a little different. “When…

Consider it a silver lining to some of Long Island’s darkest clouds. In what’s being proffered as a response to the historic flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy, $388 million in state and federal funds will flow into Suffolk County to expand sanitary service to over 8,000 parcels of land currently utilizing on-site septic systems. The coastal resiliency initiative, approved by FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, is a major victory for lawmakers and activists who have…